The Lightning's Oracle - Chapter One...

 The Lightning's Oracle  

 

by Adam Manning

 

Chapter 1

 

Never trust a woman to be on time, he thought. At least his worst enemies had practised enough manners to be punctual when a time had been set.  Here he stood as if he was once more a young, nervous lad on a hill overlooking his home village, hoping to catch the eye of the pretty milkmaid.  He, a seasoned veteran of so many wars, quests and battles he had lost count, could feel that knot in his stomach he vaguely remembered as fear.  Not due to any dragon, troll, ghost or goblin mind; it was a woman, of all things, who made his knees seem to quake, his mouth to parch and his senses unravel.  He was waiting for her on this lonely, lawned clearing between two realms of woodland and she was late.

Arion turned slightly to drink in more of the view of the land around him. The grassy plain on which both he and his steed had stopped ran to the north and to the south for a long, unchallenged stretch. Both woods, one in front and one behind, were thickly treed and an energetic river cut through the land just short of the frontward forest.  The Stormwood Mountains tore into the sky eastward, the snow clad peaks a pure white brilliance in the sparkling summer morning sunshine.  Odd clouds skitted the sky’s dome and a strong yet warm breeze ruffled both his long, thick mane of chestnut hair and the rich, scarlet cloth of the cloak he wore over his plate armour.

Vandrea. He toyed with her name on his tongue as if in some way it would help him make sense of what had happened, what might happen still.  His love for her wrapped all round him, a second skin far more constant and far less yielding than the metal shielding of his war suits of plate and chainmail. He felt it in each of the pores of his skin, saw it in his own haunted eyes and heard it in the echoes of all his dreams. He dared not look into his soul for he would only see her there gazing back with all her insistent power.  The rain poured in his heart for he longed for her to want him as he, almost in rage, desired her .  That was perhaps why he always felt uneasy on days of azure skies such as this. The Sun was, after all, her element.

It was easy to see how some might suppose the Sun was a more powerful god than the Wind, whom Arion venerated.  It blazed and, becoming uncomfortable, Arion threw down his scabbarded sword and heavy belt on the grass beside his warhorse.  He bent his head low to remove the crested helm and in doing so, a fierce spark seemed to fling out at him from his right.  Turning, he finally recognised she was nearing. At last.

She was a priestess of the Sun god and had gained powerful magics in her rise to such glory.  These were being put to fantastic use in her approach; she flew gracefully towards him, standing aloft about half a tree’s height in the air, moving at the rate of a gliding bird.  Around her, an aura as brilliant as a second sun shone.  He looked to see that several elven attendants accompanied her, flitting around her in circles. Indeed so slender was she that she could have been one of the elven fairy folk herself.

The wind dropped, the elven attendants slipped off into the woods and she descended out of the sky to the earth below.  She looked more human now but her power over Arion was undiminished.  Words, Arion thought, could be cast into a spell but they still failed to give any inkling of the magic this woman wrought over him.  Pretty, for instance, was too small a word to describe her.  Loveliness, too vague. Beauty, even beauty, was still only a word: the spell these words conjured fell far short of her presence, her reality.

Her steps did not pause as she landed and glided over to him, her three steps sure but subtle. Then she stopped and looked up at him.

“My love,” she whispered too him. And then a kiss, no more than a flutter of butterfly wings. She took his hand and his enchanted armour plating fell from with the incantation of a simple spell.  He now stood before her in his woollen, sleeveless jerkin and leather trousers that had been under his armour.  She ran her hand up his strong arm to his shoulder and then they drew closer.  This time he drank more deeply of her kisses, a long draught that calmed the longing in him.  He broke away for a moment, looking down.

“This cannot be”, he told her, a statement and a question. “We are too different. Our lands are at war, our faiths alien to one another. Our love defies even the ways of our deities.”

“When I saw you that day in the square in Tirion, I too thought as you”, she tried to assure him. “ But your gaze held me and the prayers and songs in the temple to my god could not take you from my mind. I consulted the elder priestesses at the temple and they told me this.  If our love is true, it will defy any difficulty, overcome any obstacle, break down any barrier.  No reason the world can give us need turn its course. They told me that the world was made from love itself by God and therefore whenever there is Love, that is good.”

“I see the sense in what you say”, Arion nodded, “but there are so many problems.  How will I see you? Will it be often? I cannot think that it would be.” He walked away.

She glided to him. “My love, I am here with you now, that is all.  Come.” She ran her arms round him and he turned to her once more.  They held each other and kissed again.  How helpless he was to her, Arion thought. He had fought giants, lions and any number of men-at-arms but only with her did he feel so vulnerable. His hand caressed her aureate hair and held her face to his as their kissing became more urgent.

Their closeness now more than repaid him the distance since that chance meeting in the market town of Tirion, much to the north.  Their arms and hands reached for each other as if they needed to confirm what they saw of one another by touch.  Arion suddenly realized the importance of what Vandrea had described.  She had said that there was a chance and she wanted it.  She knew the extent of their troubles but her heart was wrought the same way as his.  She wanted to take up the adventure of their love just as he did!  His heart soared; he was a hawk, an eagle, a dove climbing higher, ascending the dome of the sky, to fly in the divine light of the Sun himself.   He broke the kiss for a moment, only to laugh softly and too glowingly smile at the sweet face of his love.  The life of a warrior such as his was filled with the doom of battles and much melancholy but now he felt a bliss, a happiness to outlast eternity. And he kissed her again, marvelling that this miracle could be real and that they were together.

She had not been idle though. Her hands had nimbly undone the leather laces that held the opening of his jerkin together. It was then slid from his torso, hardened, scarred and strengthened as it was by the labour of a thousand fights. His body, lean and tanned, held her gaze for an instant and then she pulled him to her, pressing her hungry fingers into his back. The wind had grown around them and storm clouds had blown in from the south.  Yet the sun seemed somehow to brighten against these invaders in the sky as sometimes happens before a storm.  But these events were unheeded by the lovers as they were the only two inhabitants of their world now.

As their passion intensified, unnoticed to them they gently lifted off the grass and climbed into the air. Strange magic was afoot but their desire for each other distracted them sufficiently from noticing.  He unclasped her silver belt and her simple white gown fell open.  Now she was revealed to him and he took long looks to take in her true loveliness.  No goddess could stand against her.  He ran his hands underneath her robe and filled them with the perfection he had consumed with his eyes. Urgent, lustful kisses played out down her neck and over her body.

By this time they had climbed as high as Vandrea had been in her approach before.  The clouds had darkened even more and yet the Sun’s rays speared into the earth.  The wind whipped and turned past them, exclaiming their wanton, carnal desire.

They paused, gazing at each other with one consuming thought. Now was their love to be fulfilled and exalted, now their hearts would lead them to an eternity of feeling that would break a world of mere thoughts. They embraced, a sphere of blistering light encasing them, a globe of lightning sheering of smaller sparks which ran like rain to the ground.